Charlene’s Gallery Ten Presents One-day Trunk Show of Paintings by Guatemalan Artist Juan Francisco Guzmán in Gills Rock.

In the Sololá region of Guatemala, Juan Francisco Guzmán is known as an inspiring, demanding, life-changing high school teacher and the director of the school’s Spanish language arts curriculum. His writing won the national prize for literature. But, Guzmán is also famous worldwide as a highly-acclaimed artist who is one of Guatemala’s most celebrated painters.

On Saturday, July 31 from 11 am to 3 pm Charlene’s Gallery Ten in Gills Rock will host a very special one-day Trunk Show of his paintings. Lea B. Pellett, an emeritus professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia is responsible for bringing his work from Guatemala to the USA, literally carrying this collection of rolled paintings here by hand. Some will be exhibited on stretchers and some remain as un-mounted works.

 Reality and fantasy are the intersecting qualities of Guzmán’s work. He explains that his art is an evolutionary consequence of his personal search for meaning by inspecting man’s nature since pre-Columbian times until today. At 1 pm on Saturday, Jodi Kacer will present a talk on the artist and his Mayan heritage.

“I resonate to the message that he sends with his art,” Kacer explains. “And I am passionate about it. His art is a fusion of modern plastic and primitive indigenous arte-naif, rich in symbolism. Splashes of surrealism spring forth uncontrollably in a mysterious blend of the real and fantasy.”

Born in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, Guzmán has been painting for more than 25 years. His cultural immersion there permits him to create his own original techniques and schemes resulting in a synthesis of Guatemala’s metabolic, undulating magic and reality. The thrilling colors, the symbolism and the backgrounds all harmonize into a unified real and magical form.

“Guzman has a deep appreciation of the Mayan culture and his artwork captures that essence magnificently,” says Richard Morgan, Director of the Cultural Center Los Encuentros.

Juan Francisco Guzmán is “the magic expressionist of religious celebration and the piercing scream of the pueblo,” says Maria Jose Torres, Nicte-Arte, Spain. “Poet, philosopher, educator; Guzman travels with his work through space reflecting on the nature of the spirit, while charged with a limitless emotion. Guzman has exhibited in North America, Guatemala and Spain. In Spain he is known for his ability at composition and in particular control of backgrounds, a stylistic characteristic symbol.”

Learn more about the merging of ancient and pre-Columbian beginnings with modern art trends and the social and cultural life of Guatemala in this one-day exhibition of paintings by Juan Francisco Guzmán.

UPCOMING:

Ray Kapfamer
Opening Saturday, August 7  and on exhibit through September 9

Paul Laurie lecture and presentation...
"Fine Art Photography Using Film and Digital Tools"
Saturday, August 14, 1:30 pm

Annual Outdoor Artfest
September 4 - 5, 10 am - 5 pm each day
More than 15 artists live and acting up...
including the "Chalk-a-lot parking lot paint-in!"